Breeding of annual
killifish is one of most exciting and fascinating experience I have
ever had in aquarium hobby. Every time I have soaked the peat
containing some eggs I was astonished with new life that appears
from handful of "mud".
If you want to breed your annual fish, it is very important to keep
and feed them in a proper way. Good filtration and regular water
changes are essential for every fish including Killies. Water should
be medium hard with pH above 7. Feed your fish with various live
food. It could be enriched with some dry or frozen food.
A few different spawning mediums are used for breeding of annual
Killies, but peat is far preferred one. Different kinds of peat are
used for breeding of annual fish. The usual way of peat preparing is
boiling and rinsing through the net. While boiling reduces the
acidity and kills the harmful organisms, the rinsing removes the
finest dust particles from peat. How long to boil the peat is matter
of your judgment. According the contacts I had with some experienced
breeders, it goes from 15 minutes to one hour. Some persons achieve
good results with quite different procedure. They do not boil or
rinse the peat, the only thing they do is to soak the peat in tap
water for longer period.
Some kind of killifish could
reproduce successfully in one kind of peat, but it could be
impossible to reproduce some other species in the same kind of peat.
What is the best way of peat preparing depends on particular kind of
peat and on particular kind of fish. The only way to find out what
is the good kind of peat and what is the proper way of preparing,
for particular species is to try it.
Once you have the peat prepared you should choose the spawning
procedure. I usually breed one male and two or three females, but
larger groups could be introduced, too. The water for breeding
should be the same kind as the water from maintenance tank. There
are two basic breeding setups for breeding of annual killifish. The
first is to use the breeding tank with bottom covered with peat. The
filtration in such setup is not necessary but it is recommended. The
second setup implies introducing of breeding container with peat
into the maintenance tank. The breeding container used by many
breeders is the margarine tub, with a hole in the lid. I usually use
the glass jar. Using of container prevents dead leaves and food
entering the peat, which could be harmful for the eggs. In a
such setup the fish will seek and spawn in the peat.
Some annuals lay their eggs in the surface of the peat while another
bury them in the spawning substrate The necessary peat layer depends
on particular species. For those that lay the eggs in the surface it
is 1-2 cm. For fish that bury their eggs, the minimum is 4 cm for
small fish and more for bigger specimens. Spawning of annuals that
lay their eggs in the peat looks just the same as the breeding of
non annual fish.
On contrary, the breeding of the fish that bury their eggs in the
peat it is quite different and it is very interesting to
observe . They are so called "Peat Divers". When the
females are ready to spawn introduce one male into a spawning tank.
The matting will soon take a place. The male displays himself to the
females by beating of his fins and swimming around. After a while
the pair seek out the peat bottom and disappear in it completely.
Depositing of the eggs is done in peat. The male usually swims out
first, followed by female after a few seconds.
The males of the annual fish could be very aggressive on females.
From that reason it is necessary to introduce some hiding places.
The usual choice is aquatic plants as Jawa moss or artificial
spawning mops. Check the females every day and if they show the
signs as hollow belly or rugged fins, quit the breeding and
condition females again.
When the spawning is completed take out the peat and squeeze it in
the net to remove most of the water. How much to dry the peat? Dr.
Brian Watters one of most famous Nothobranchius specialist and
collector describe it this way:
"After allowing the fish to spawn for a period of 1-3 weeks,
the peat (hopefully including eggs) can be placed in a fine-mesh
net, squeezed to remove excess water, and allowed to air dry further
until it reaches a suitably moist (but not soggy wet) state."
Some other authors recommend that peat should have the same moisture
as the pipe tobacco. According the peat I get from different
breeders I conclude that eggs could develop properly in variously
dried peat, as long as the extremes are avoid. Yet in my opinion
breeders usually left the peat too wet. There are some opinions that
such moisture content could induce belly sliding problem (it will be
explained latter).
Put the peat after drying into the plastic bag containing some air
and tie it. Put the label on the bag with basic references (species,
collecting date etc.). Store the peat at dark place at temperature
around 25 C, until the eggs are ready to hatch. Here we come to
another interesting question. How long we should wait before soaking
the peat? It depends on many things, particular species, storage
temperature, moisture etc. There are some listings of recommended
incubation periods in the various publications, but you will always
find the note that it is "a very rough guide only". The
best way is to examine the eggs, every few weeks, with magnifying
glass. Well developed eye inside the egg (not just the black
spot), it is the sign that eggs are ready for hatching. It is good
idea to leave the eggs for additional week or two before soak the
peat.
Hatching procedure is following. Put the peat in well aerated water.
The water should have the same composition as the breeding water.
After a few hours the first fry should hatch. The most of annual fry
could accept the baby brine shrimp soon after hatching. You can also
feed the fry with micro worms or vinegar eels. Do not overfeed the
fry because they are sensitive to water pollution and disease
Oodinium (see the Nothobranchius
page). Wait for 2-3 days
and then siphon of the fry into another container. After that, you
can redry the peat for another month because it usually contains
more unhatched eggs. Rewetting could be made several times until all
the eggs are hatched.
Some fry will not be able to fill the swim bladder, and they are so
called belly sliders. It is not sure what is the cause of belly
sliding problem. Various opinions exist on that matter. Some authors
think that it could be due to some infection, but it is more likely
that it is connected with improper way of egg storage. Too short (or
sometimes too long) incubation period, wrong storage temperature and
moisture content are often suspected, but it is not impossible that
combination of these factors could be the cause.
Annual fish grove fast and they are usually ready for spawning two
months after hatching. When you see that your young breeders are
prepared for breeding you could separate sexes in order to increase
the number of eggs. After a week or two the fish will be ready to
begin another circle of life |
